underspoken

English

Verb

underspoken

1. past participle of underspeak

Adjective

underspoken (comparative more underspoken, superlative most underspoken)

1. Characterized by understatement; understated.
   • 1999, Kurt Vonnegut, Galapagos, page 16:

     The Anglo-Saxon Charles Darwin, underspoken and gentlemanly, impersonal and asexual and blankly observant in his writings, was a hero in teeming, passionate, polyglot Guayaquil because he was the inspiration for a tourist boom.

   • 2002, Peter Carnahan, Pharnabazus Sits on the Ground with the Spartan Captains, page 77:

     But trust him, I don't think I ever did. Even in his new, earnest, underspoken self.

   • 2015, Elliott H. Lieb, Studies in Mathematical Physics, page 3:

     In a very underspoken sense one may view the achievements of Copernicus, Kepler, Brahe - the giants on whose shoulders Newton stood — and Newton as being the unfolding and solution of this very problem.

   • 2019, Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, →ISBN, page 345:

     "We are simply doing our service for Gilead," she said in her underspoken robot Aunt's way, and the Angel said, "Praise be."